Name: Tariku Ayana Abdi, Ph.D.
Address: Email: tarikuayanaabdi@gmail.com [mailto:tarikuayanaabdi@gmail.com]
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=No2PDhMAAAAJ&hl=en
Personal statement
I am a hardworking and result-oriented person with rich experience in research, teaching, and training, as well as experience in an International NGO. I am a highly organized and efficient individual, whose thorough and precise approach to effective and efficient work and research fields has yielded commendable results. Over the past decade of both my work experience and education mobility, I have developed professional interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, and successful adaption skills to social, cultural, and professional changes.
Employment History
Research Fellow, University of Bologna, Department of Management. Bologna, Italy.
(July 2023 – Present)
My responsibilities and Achievements:
- Collecting and analyzing data on migrants’ entrepreneurship in Italy.
- Writing papers for conferences and publications.
- Scientific collaboration with other professionals on writing scientific papers and publishing them.
Research and Lecturer, Ethiopian Police University. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
(June 2014 – August 2016)
Responsibilities and Achievements:
- Researching educational and social issues.
- Advising junior researchers and students.
- Training junior staff members and stakeholders on research methods.
- Collaborated in developing teaching modules (particularly research methods).
· Spearheaded a research team and completed two studies on road crashes and education-related issues. The study on road crashes was later published in a local journal while the study on the education-related issue (an impact assessment of a newly introduced education and training system at the University) was used for policy consumption.
Assistant Counselor, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Public Health, Centre for Communication Program, Ethiopia Field Office. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
(March 2009 – March 2014)
Responsibilities and Achievements:
- Initially joined the organization as a student volunteer, then I was promoted to Junior II counselor and later, Assistant counselor.
- Providing counseling, information, and referral services for clients, and on-the-job and refresher training for the staff members on job-relevant issues.
Intern at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Regional Service Center for Africa, Human Resources Unit. Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
(March 12, 2018 – July 24, 2018)
Responsibilities:
- Facilitating the employee onboarding process.
- Adapting employee onboarding documents.
- Regularly (bi-weekly (twice a week) conducting Performance Management and Development (PMD), and reporting to the responsible body.
- Facilitating staff training; assisting recruitment and selection strategy.
· Regularly updating and documenting staff profiles, etc.
· The main purpose of the internship was the requirement of organizational placement in the fulfillment of the ‘European Master in Work, Organizational, and Personnel Psychology’, and completed my organizational placement.
Education
‘Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli’, Italy
(November 2018 – May 2022).
Ph.D. in Sciences of Mind
- Developed a doctoral dissertation on the career success of African migrants in Europe. This doctoral dissertation had three separate studies including:
- A systematic literature review of antecedents of career success of African migrant workers in Europe. This systematic literature review provided a theoretical foundation for the roles of key career resources in leading to higher career success including job satisfaction, career satisfaction, salary, and occupational status recovery.
- A preliminary adaptation and validation of a short version of the Career Resources Questionnaire (CRQ). This study successfully provided evidence for the validity and reliability of some of the subscales of the CRQ (a tool that assesses key factors associated with career success) among African migrant employees in Italy and Spain.
o The final study tested the associations between career resources, perceived employability, perceived workplace discrimination, and career success – using a Moderated Mediation Model. The study successfully provided evidence that migrant career success is not only dependent on the possession of relevant career resources which also leads to higher perceived employability (that mediates the association with career success) but also perceived workplace discrimination which negatively affects the migrants’ perceptions of employability and career success.
University of Valencia (home), Spain, and University of Bologna (mobility), Italy, (September 2016 – July 2018).
European Master in Work, Organizational, and Personnel Psychology (WOP-P)
Thesis evaluation: Excellent
- Completed organizational placement (internship) in human resources practice at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Regional Service Center for Africa.
· Analyzed and interpreted data (using Discriminant and Cluster analysis) and published research on antecedents of well-being at the workplace among millennial Spanish workers.
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia,
(September 2007 – July 2009).
Master of Arts Degree in Developmental Psychology – Thesis evaluation: Excellent
· Developed a thesis and conducted research on Adolescent gambling among Addis Ababa high school students: planning the research, collecting data, analyzing it using appropriate data analysis methods (multiple regression and t-test), and publishing.
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
(September 2004 – July 2007).
Bachelor of Degree in Educational Psychology – overall evaluation: Very Great Distinction
· Conducted senior essay (on adolescent dating: nature, prevalence, and mate selection among high school adolescents).
Training and consultancy activities
- September 2015. I provided training on ‘Holistic Child Development’ for mothers in SOS Children Village INGO at the Jimma Country office.
- September 2015. I trained data collectors and coordinated the data collection process for the ‘New Enlightenment’ local consultancy firm in Addis Ababa.
Publications and conference paper
Abdi, T., Peiró, J., & Lo Presti, A. (2021). Antecedents of Career Success of African Migrant Workers in Europe: A 2011-2019 Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda. Australian Journal of Career Development, 30(3), 211-225. https://doi.org/10.1177/10384162211066380
Abdi, T., Peiró, J., De Rosa, A., & Lo Presti, A. (2021, September 23-25). A Preliminary Adaptation and Validation of a Short Version of the Career Resources Questionnaire among African Migrant Workers in Italy and Spain. XVIII Congresso Nazionale della Sezione AIP di “psicología per le Organizzazioni.” Rewind o Forward? La psicología per le organizzazioni nelle sfide della risposta. Verona, Italy.
Abdi, T., Peiró, J., Ayala, Y., & Zappalà, S. (2019). Four Wellbeing Patterns and their Antecedents in Millennials at Work. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16010025
Abdi, T. A., Hailu, B. H., Adal, T. A., van Gelder, P. H. A. J. M., Hagenzieker, M. P., & Carbon, C.C. (2017). Road Crashes In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Empirical Findings Between the Years 2010 and 2014. Journal of African Research Review, 11(2), 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v11i2.1
Abdi, T. A., Ruiter, R. A., & Adal, T. A. (2015). Personal, Social, and Environmental Risk Factors of Problematic Gambling Among High School Adolescents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Journal of Gambling Studies, 31(1), 59-72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-013-9410-9
Mujanović, E., Simić, S., Marković, B., & Abdi, T. A. (in Press). Refugees’ Economic Integration Through Social Entrepreneurship: Social Plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Accepted for publication in Bandini, F., Bianchini, S., & Bolzani, D. (Eds.), Social Entrepreneurship and Migrants' Inclusion - Insights from the Adriatic-Ionian Region. Cham: Springer Nature
Doctoral Dissertation
Abdi, T.A. (2022). Career Success of African Migrant Workers in Europe: The roles of key career resources, perceived employability, and labor market discrimination.
